David Dodge, Pembina Institute

Suncor Energy has spilled oil and grease into the Athabasca River, and at least one of its tailings ponds is seeping into the groundwater

An oilsands operation has spilled 300 litres of oil and grease into the Athabasca River, and leaks five million litres of toxic wastewater into the ground every day, it was revealed this week.

Although such spills have been suspected for years, this is the first concrete proof a company has released contaminated water into the river, and area residents are upset that they didn’t find out about it earlier.

“We’re right down from the river and we consume that water,” says Roxanne Marcel, chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, who live downstream from the oilsands. “We get angry at more spills happening.”

The spills first came to light in a May 6 PowerPoint presentation created by Suncor Energy, the second-largest company in the oilsands, for the town of Fort Chipewyan, a 1,200-strong community on the shores of Lake Athabasca, downstream from their operations. The presentation was made public this week.

According to the PowerPoint, Suncor released dirty water into the Athabasca River on five occasions between June 2003 and April 2008. By far the largest spill happened on September 8 of last year and involved a pond of wastewater waiting to be treated and put back in the river. The pond had a pipe pulling water from the bottom. When the water level fell below the pipe, the system started sucking out the oil and grease floating on top of the pond and pumping it into the river.

A report by scientists at the University of Waterloo indicates that the Tar Island dyke, one of Suncor’s tailings ponds, is also leaking five million litres of toxic water a day, some of which ends up the river. The report was prepared for the company and dated November 2007 but wasn’t obtained by the media until this week.

Both reports indicate that the company tried to stop the leaks, and the dirty water didn’t appear to have any adverse effect on the river. After the spill last September, Suncor informed the provincial government and some local residents, says company spokesperson Brad Bellows. Others didn’t find out until this month.

“I don’t think they went into the community and informed us,” says Marcel. The provincial opposition is also pointing the finger at the government for not going public with the information about the spills or the leaking tailings pond.

“It raises the question of how much we can trust the government,” says David Swann, a Calgary MLA and Liberal Party environment critic. “What else do they know that they’re not telling the public?”

As recently as May 15, provincial Environment Minister Rob Renner said the oilsands didn’t pose any threat to the water supply in the area. According to an official transcript of that afternoon’s debate in the legislature, Swann asked Renner if he could guarantee there was no risk of oilsands operations leaching into the province’s water.

“Yes,” Renner replied. “That has been my consistent message and answer… I don’t know why (Swann) keeps asking the same question. Does he expect a different answer?”

Although previous spills haven’t been proven, communities downstream from the oilsands have long been concerned that the industrial activity is hurting their water quality.

A peer-reviewed scientific study by ecologist Kevin Timoney, released last fall, found higher than average concentrations of more than 20 substances, including arsenic and mercury, in Lake Athabasca and the Athabasca Delta. It also concluded that the poisons were entering the ecosystems and could threaten people who hunt and eat local wildlife.

Some area residents have complained of high rates of disease, including a rare bile-duct cancer, and residents want to know if the oilsands are causing it. “We just want answers,” says George Poitras, a resident of Fort Chipewyan. “There have been very regular diagnoses of cancer in the community. We find that to be alarming.”

Boiling Point, a study released last week by the Polaris Institute, an Ottawa-based advocacy group, highlighted Fort Chipewyan as emblematic of the water problems faced by First Nations people across the country.

“What we need is a really thorough assessment,” says Andrea Harden, one of the study’s authors. “In a way, the government of Alberta and these (oilsands) companies have been complicit in not giving more information.”

The Alberta Cancer Board is leading a study to determine if the claims are true and if the oilsands are causing higher rates of disease, and hopes to have results by fall, says board spokesperson Lee Elliott.

The government is also launching a full environmental study to measure the level of toxins in the water and the ground around the oilsands. The revelations come just weeks after the province busted out a $25-million advertising campaign to promote the oilsands as environmentally friendly.